Training and development - Part 7 - Training Essay Example

Introduction

Of late, there has been a debate in HRM managers to succeed there has to shift from control to commitment, and that training and development of employees creates commitment, some experts agree while others are cynical about this - Training and development introduction. However, it is clear that training and developing of employees are very crucial for operation and advancements of an organization in relation to the perspective of a company. According to the views made by employees, such factors are both very important for an organization, for development of skills and advancements to be mad in a career. Retaining employees and retaining the value of their skills set are very crucial for business achievements (Burden and Proctor, 2000). According to Cappelli (2000) retaining committed employees successfully leads to knowledge conservation and preservation in an organization. No employee can be retained in a company that he/she is not committed to. Thus, we argue that yes indeed training and development of employees leads to commitment.

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While organization commitment towards training of its staff positively impact retention as well results to desirable outcomes, Walton (1985) points out that there are various classes and kinds of training that an organization can offer to its employees. According to Walton (1985) asserts that in order to create positive results whereby the employees commitment would be enhanced, they say that the organization has to be committed to the training it is offering to its employees. At the same time the organization has to have effective and proper training methods that will be used to deliver the training.

In order to flourish, an organization has to formulate an environment that attracts employees to join the organization and offer their best to the same organization. More so, the organization has to endeavor to retain the existing employees. Retaining experienced and skilled employees might create a competitive advantage to a company (Huang 2001)

One way of committing employees to the organization and retaining them is through carrying out employee training for the employees who are present in the organization. Hallier and Butts (1999) concurs that, the increase of training employers in the organization may be due to the wish of employers to commit the employees. Because of this, for a number of organizations, the main aim of training is to increase the commitment of employees to the organization while creating a culture that underpins the importance of long-term employment.

As Deery et al (1994) observed, a lot of employees now days consider career development as a priority motivational aspect; after being motivate the employees are most likely to be committed to their jobs as well as the organization. Consequently, management commitment to training and development of its employees can considerably, impact retention rate, even in cases where financial incentives like increase on salary is not there.

In addition, the major objectives of employee retention and specific training programs are as well specific. These objectives includes, improving employees work performance, enhancing their development, developing their knowledge and skills, and also a way of creating competitive advantage to the organization (Burden and Proctor, 2000).

Owing to the fact that they are rapid changes within every industry and also in technology, there is a continuous necessity to offer opportunities for staff to update its skills and get to know the changes within the industry. If a company failures to offer this kind of training, there is a greater chance of it failing in its business and it could loss its employees.

Massive employee turnover is dangerous because it bring about resources human wise which lowers position in the market competition. With in company level, mechanization which promotes and favors transfer of knowledge among employees may help to reduce the impacts of losing skilled staff by companies employing them as said by Cappelli (2000).

There is increase of employee satisfaction which is brought about by training of employees, favors skills updating there by bring about an increase in sense of belonging and of benefits, increases commitment employees have to their organizations (Burden and Proctor (2000), and also strengthens the competitiveness of the organization (Huang, 2001).

As Burden and Proctor (2000) said, there is a possibility that the ability of employees to perform job related tasks faster increases through Job-related trainings. Satisfaction of employees is required for motivation and retention thereby reducing the turnover rate of an organization (Torrington and Holden, 1992). Torrington and Holden (1992) again state that if a Company is positively committed to the training needs of its employees it will increase the commitment of its workforce.

Burden and Proctor (2000) said that commitment results in exposure of employees to high quality, which also increase their morale and sense of achievement. The final result is that the company will have high skilled employees who are a crucial tool when it comes to competition.

Organizational dedication to training of employees

Training programs need committed support of executive management for effectiveness as said by (Miller, 1989). Many companies do all they can in order to recruit very good individuals, yet little is done to retain these individuals once hired by the companies according to Cappelli (2000). Evidence gathered proves that benefits accrue to companies which are devoted to training of employees (Miller, 1989).

Organizations put high emphasis on training human resources to training process management. From a study carried out by Cappelli (2000) these organizations get time to ensure that employees get training programs which are very appropriate to them given that their sets of skills differs, thus, maximizing training programs effectively.

Organizations that put more emphasis on finances to training programs and developing employees do so with an aim to get a pay-off from employees in terms of increased skills, enhanced motivation, increase in transfer of knowledge; positive increase of psychological and organizational movements and lastly, competitive edge (Hallier and Butts, 1999)

Training evaluation

Hallierand Butts (1999) proved that despite the huge investment made in training, organizations can continuously fail to evaluate success of their training programs adequately. Organizations which invest considerably resources in training programs also understand the success of training evaluation process as pointed by Hallierand Butts (1999). Cappelli (2000) concurs that evaluation is the key phase in training and development process. Trainee perceptions are the major metric of evaluation used as pointed by (Huang, 2001). Walton (1985) points out that some assessment are taken to be ad-hoc and unstructured training program evaluations that tend to be post training appraisals and not directing towards the evaluation of training programs from their own stages of design.

Training types

There are many forms of training techniques that exist and their range has been expanded by technology applications such as computer technology. Some of the training techniques include hypermedia training, a computer based technique of non-sequential writing and reading. Chunks of information can be ordered or reordered according to an employee’s needs and curiosities (Huang, 2001), using this technique; web based and computer based training. Huang, (2001) also adds that, we have self-paced training where by various delivery methods are used. For example, distance learning through use of videoconferencing or other methods, groupware communication and various others. Some other forms of training include mentor use and management games. It is noticed that the methods used to train employees are those which were used years back and not the modern ones. The reason given for this by Burden and Proctor, (2000) is that the old fashioned techniques are more effective than those of today.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, the major conclusion from the research we have made is that training and development programs have a huge impact on commitment of employees to an organization. Employees who get quality training and development reward the company by staying in the company and with increased performance. The reason we give to this is that as employees look at training as an important factor for their career development, training is a major factor in retaining and committing employees. More so, some organizations undertake training for improved job performance so as to increase employee satisfaction and reduce their job stress. As stated, there is various ways of training employees among them being technology driven techniques like computer based training. However, the most commonly used method in training them is known as instructor led formal training. At the same time, it is important for organization o evaluate their training programs so that they can know on the areas where they can make some improvement. As Cappelli (2000) reminds us, those companies that show dedication and commitment of training their employees are bound to gain competitive advantage over the rest. Indeed, one can easily conclude, that in the current competitive job environment, those companies that have effective training and development programs will definitely increase the commitment of their employees towards these companies.